1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly, to portable data storage and solid state drives.
2. Description of the Related Art
Floppy disk drives have been a feature of personal computers since their beginnings. In early personal computers, floppy disks were often the only hard storage media available, and floppy disk drives were the primary means of loading an operating system and other software into a computer system's memory. As hard disk drives became standard equipment on personal computers, floppy disks were still used as a means of distributing new software and transferring data/files from one computer to another. However, the function of loading operating system software was transferred to hard disk drives, as was often the case for applications software (which may have been initially installed via floppy disks).
Presently, both operating systems and applications software are typically consume a large portion of disk space. Distribution of applications software via floppy disks (which typically have a capacity of 1.44 MB) is rarely practical, as these programs and their associated files consume a large amount of disk space. Such files may include video, sound, and other formats which make them too large to be stored on a single floppy disk.
Despite these factors, floppy disk drives are typically still shipped as standard with personal computer systems. Floppy disk drives are still sometimes used by systems administrators or technicians in the event of a hard disk crash. A basic operating system, such as DOS (disk operating system) may oftentimes be loaded into the memory of a computer system that has suffered a hard drive crash. Having loaded an operating system into memory via the floppy disk drive, a technician or system administrator may begin troubleshooting and/or repairs to the computer system.
Other than the system recovery functions described above, the usefulness of floppy disks is relatively limited. Regardless, floppy disk drives are still included as standard equipment on many computer systems, primarily for legacy reasons. Since floppy disk drives are mechanical devices, they may be more prone to failure than solid-state devices. Furthermore, designing a computer system to include a floppy disk drive may place several extra space constraints on a computer system designer, not only for the disk drive itself but for the cabling and power connections associated with it. This problem may be especially pronounced with portable computer systems due to their small size.